The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Attention and sensory adaptation

Attention and sensory adaptation
Attention and sensory adaptation
The human sensory system features many dynamic and functional mechanisms that address processing capacity limitations and the complexity of sensory information available in the world. Attention allows the sensory system to prioritise the processing of relevant inputs and ignore those that are irrelevant, while adaptation provides individual neurons a greater sensitivity to a broad range of input. Aftereffects resulting from adaptation are a useful behavioural tool for probing the underlying mechanisms of adapted features, as well as the influence of attention. This thesis features a literature review, meta-analytic review and two empirical studies to explore the influence of attention on the visual motion aftereffect (MAE) and haptic curvature aftereffect (CAE).
Chapter 1 features an introduction to adaptation and attention and a review of the literature. Chapter 2 demonstrates that attention affects the MAE, with stronger effects for translational than complex motion, and that this relationship is unaffected by adaptation duration or response bias. The meta-analysis of published research (Chapter 3) confirms these findings, revealing a substantial overall effect of attention on the MAE, predominantly driven by feature-based attention and not accounted for by response bias. Chapter 4 reveals that haptic curvature adaptation is not modulated by visual or haptic attention.
The discussion (Chapter 5) combines these findings with the previous literature to conclude that visual motion adaptation is affected by attention, whereas haptic curvature adaptation operates independently of attention.
University of Southampton
Bartlett, Laura
10ca220e-e90b-4cf6-a056-38f33b12b632
Bartlett, Laura
10ca220e-e90b-4cf6-a056-38f33b12b632
Adams, Wendy
25685aaa-fc54-4d25-8d65-f35f4c5ab688
Graf, Erich
1a5123e2-8f05-4084-a6e6-837dcfc66209

Bartlett, Laura (2020) Attention and sensory adaptation. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 175pp.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

The human sensory system features many dynamic and functional mechanisms that address processing capacity limitations and the complexity of sensory information available in the world. Attention allows the sensory system to prioritise the processing of relevant inputs and ignore those that are irrelevant, while adaptation provides individual neurons a greater sensitivity to a broad range of input. Aftereffects resulting from adaptation are a useful behavioural tool for probing the underlying mechanisms of adapted features, as well as the influence of attention. This thesis features a literature review, meta-analytic review and two empirical studies to explore the influence of attention on the visual motion aftereffect (MAE) and haptic curvature aftereffect (CAE).
Chapter 1 features an introduction to adaptation and attention and a review of the literature. Chapter 2 demonstrates that attention affects the MAE, with stronger effects for translational than complex motion, and that this relationship is unaffected by adaptation duration or response bias. The meta-analysis of published research (Chapter 3) confirms these findings, revealing a substantial overall effect of attention on the MAE, predominantly driven by feature-based attention and not accounted for by response bias. Chapter 4 reveals that haptic curvature adaptation is not modulated by visual or haptic attention.
The discussion (Chapter 5) combines these findings with the previous literature to conclude that visual motion adaptation is affected by attention, whereas haptic curvature adaptation operates independently of attention.

Text
Final Thesis - Version of Record
Available under License University of Southampton Thesis Licence.
Download (4MB)

More information

Published date: 2020

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 452343
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/452343
PURE UUID: 63310d3b-d1ec-4c5b-bab3-2c0cce892be7
ORCID for Wendy Adams: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5832-1056
ORCID for Erich Graf: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3162-4233

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 08 Dec 2021 18:45
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:59

Export record

Contributors

Author: Laura Bartlett
Thesis advisor: Wendy Adams ORCID iD
Thesis advisor: Erich Graf ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×